I expect a slow start, but honestly as wings fans we are used to slow starts. Z is especially prone to not producing constantly until the fifteen game mark. I would expect something similar for alfie. If from games 10-25 he hasn't started to produce offense ill be worried. Not until then.

I expect Alfie to be slow but clutch all year long. Clutch being the main factor here obviously, many of our losses over the past few years could have gone either way so hopefully his poise will help...

line 2 will suck for a while. weiss alf and franzen. babcock will split up dats and z two weeks in.

I don't think splitting Z and Pav is the first option. Moving Alfie up with them, putting Cleary/Sammy/Bert/Abby with Weiss & Franzen would probably the first change if it looks like the 2nd line won't work.

Gotta give that line a chance though, they've barely played together. I think it could be a good line but it kinda depends on whether Franzen plays at 100% or 50%.

I don't think splitting Z and Pav is the first option. Moving Alfie up with them, putting Cleary/Sammy/Bert/Abby with Weiss & Franzen would probably the first change if it looks like the 2nd line won't work.

Gotta give that line a chance though, they've barely played together. I think it could be a good line but it kinda depends on whether Franzen plays at 100% or 50%.

The problem is that Franzen plays at 100%, 2% of the time. Alfie will start slow and to be honest I am not expecting that much from him. Not impressed with Weiss this far as well. The first 12 games will be interesting.

Truthfully I'm not worried. Alfie is a warrior and I can't ever recall him starting out the season slowly. It's just my opinion but Alfie is the icing on the cake not the straw that will stir the Wings drink.

If he's tweaked his groin they will let him rest and work out-he always comes to camp in great shape- no need to work him like a rented mule. I'll bet #11 is reveling in not having to be the answer every night for the team and because of that look out!

It's probably for the best that he's resting up. I mean, it's not like he's young, and it's not like the preseason really means anything. Not that I wouldn't like his line to click as soon as possible, but the guy's as professional, hard-working, competitive, etc. as they come, so I have faith that it'll all work out. Mind you, I don't necessarily have faith that the line itself is ever going to really click, and, should it come to that, Babs will of course have to find some way to remedy that. But, bottom line, I'm not worried about "Alfie." (I'm sorry, but it feels weird calling him that.)

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" - Kierkegaard

Alfie went for 10g and 16a last year, I expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 20g and 30a from him this year.

Probably something closer to 15 and 40, I think with Franzen on that line they are going to struggle, I don't see anyone on the second line battling for pucks in the corners.

This is the role that Abby fills on the first line, the Wings really need a puck retrieval guy on each line.

However that means moving Franzen down to the third line, thus breaking up the youngsters on line 3, so I don't really like that idea either.

IF (huge IF) Franzen can be the Mule for a better part of this season, 70-80% of the time, then look out, that will be the most dangerous 2nd line in hockey.

If not, that line will probably be broken up, but if not separated, it will then be pretty pedestrian.

"The more I know about people - the better I like my dog." - Mark Twain

"A wise man once told me, ‘Don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who'." Jay Z, Takeover

"When I was looking for a captain, I wanted a guy with the Red Wings crest tattooed on his chest," said former Detroit coach Jacques Demers, who named Yzerman captain in 1986. "Steve Yzerman was that guy."

“Told him if he wasn't ultra-competitive he couldn't come here. If he didn't bring it every day he couldn't come here, because he was going to hate it if he didn't, dislike the coach and dislike playing here.

“It's real straightforward. If you don't do it right, you're not happy here." Babcock

Alfie went for 10g and 16a last year, I expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 20g and 30a from him this year.

Probably something closer to 15 and 40, I think with Franzen on that line they are going to struggle, I don't see anyone on the second line battling for pucks in the corners.

This is the role that Abby fills on the first line, the Wings really need a puck retrieval guy on each line.

However that means moving Franzen down to the third line, thus breaking up the youngsters on line 3, so I don't really like that idea either.

IF (huge IF) Franzen can be the Mule for a better part of this season, 70-80% of the time, then look out, that will be the most dangerous 2nd line in hockey.

If not, that line will probably be broken up, but if not separated, it will then be pretty pedestrian.

I am waiting on the edge of my seat for Alfie's regular season debut and I know this:

Alfie is a thinking man playing hockey not a dump it and hope someone else retrieves it guy. He is THE master at keep away. He's so responsible with the puck that he's not going to throw it into the corner and say oh well I hope someone retrieves that. He's going to play cat and mouse with that puck until he has options. Guys are going to play hard to get that pass from him and good things are going to happen. If he wanted to mentor other players he could have stayed in Ottawa so I'm going to believe.